Koons transforms this banal objecta staple of children's birthday parties, fairs and carnivals into large-scale sculpture. In this series, Koons prints a photographic image onto a thin sheet of stainless steel, merging three distinct mediaphotography, printmaking and sculptureinto a grand hybrid. This installation, on loan from the private collection of Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, will be on view in Sculpture Hall.

The Saint Louis Art Museum is Celebrating a Century of Free Admission in 2009 with a month-long series of events in July. Founded in 1879 as a department of Washington University, the Saint Louis Art Museum moved into architect Cass Gilbert's monumental central building from the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exhibition's Palace of Fine Arts in 1906, following the fair. In 1907, St. Louis voters approved a tax to support the Museum, and in 1909, thanks to this generous public support, the Museum became free to all. This fortunate circumstance continues to foster the broadest possible access to the Museum's extraordinary collections, as well as a deep regard for the visual arts for generations of Museum visitors.